Fishing Report

July 30, 2012

Manda James with a 3.5-lb rainbow caught at South Lake using a nightcrawler at Phantom’s Throne. Photo submitted

Lake Sabrina
Our nice relaxing, normal, everyday days were back at Lake Sabrina. Thank goodness!
No hail, no rain, no thunder and lightning, no mules being startled, no rock slide – although there were a couple of rock slides on Mt. Haeckel (covering part of the glacier in the Sabrina Basin) and around Picture Peaks along with reports of numerous other rock slides in the back country.
Lot of nice fish coming out of the lake this week. Nick Ryan of San Ramon put together his first ever stringer of fish caught by the spillway on nightcrawlers. Bill Kieser of Aspendell landed not one, but two Alpers using flies, a 2.75-pounder and a 4.25- pounder. Dave and Karla Evans of Bellflower and Jacob Looney of Lakewood put their efforts together to haul in 11.5 lbs of fish caught at the Inlet on rainbow PowerBait. John Doty of Palmdale outdid his guide Vint on this trip dragging in a 3.75-pounder using a Rainbow Thomas Buoyant. Sons Austin and Andrew made some memories with dad Bill Randall of Santa Clarita. William Talbert, 5, of Mentone brought in his very first fish with help from mom, Anna.
Fishing is still a bit slow this week. Fishing the inlets was best using nightcrawlers or PowerBait. Trolling is still on the slow, it’s better if you can get down a bit. You can use lead core at five-six colors with flashers and a nightcrawler or Thomas Buoyant. Drifting with a nightcrawler and a split-shot over the shoreline between the two natural lakes was getting some fish (heard this over and over – this is the best way to fish – so quiet).
Shore fishing with salmon eggs, PowerBait or nightcrawlers in the small coves was what was working. If you’re not sure what to do, how to do it or where to do it, come into the building and ask.
California Department of Fish and Game stocked the lake on Thursday with another load of rainbows.
An update on the mules: they are all doing fine as are the packers.
Well this is the fifth week of working on the bridge. Nothing has progressed as far as we can tell. Rick talked with the project manager and apparently they needed a few more permits, but we hear there’ll be physical progress this coming week. We’ll keep you informed of any progress. We have been assured the road will remain open during the season, so do not fret, you will be able to get to the lake.
– Lake Sabrina Boat Launch

Convict Lake
Catch of the Week: The Teodoro family from Whittier caught a stringer of fish with PowerBait on the South Shore. Collin Rodriguez caught a stringer with a Trout Magnet at the Creek. Greg Williams caught a 3-lb., 6-oz. fish with a frog needlefish at the Inlet.
Best Location to Fish: The best locations to fish right now are the South Shore, Inlet, Beach Area, Jetty, Lake, North Shore and Convict Creek.
This past week anglers have had most success with: frog needlefish, Trout Magnet, Rooster Tail, red and gold Thomas Buoyant, garlic and yellow PowerBait, worms, cheese worm, Trout Teaser, salmon eggs and Rainbow Nuggets.
Water Temperature: 58 degrees.
Weather: Temperatures are expected to slightly increase this next week with highs in the mid to low 80s and lows in the high 40s.
Tactics/Bait:
Bait: Pinched Crawlers, gulp worms, nightcrawlers, Power Eggs, Power Worms, small spinners like Mepps and Panther Martins. Chunky Cheese PowerBait,Troll with Rapalas, needlefish, Thomas Buoyant.
Lures: Panther Martin, Thomas Buoyant, Phoebe, Little Wolfs, Cripplure
Trolling: Little Cleos, Dave Davis, nightcrawler or lead core four to six colors, Rapalas, Rebels, pin minnows
Flies: Marvel Fly, Prince, haresear, Lopper Johns, ant beetles.
Convict Creek:
Flies: Strip Streamers
Bait: Eggs, nightcrawlers and Power Worms
Stocking: DFG stocked this week.
– Courtesy Convict Lake Resort

South Lake
Summer keeps rolling on and the trout fishing at the lake continues to be steady for most, excellent for some. Very few bad reports coming in. Aside from stocking day, boaters fared best at the lake this week as big schools of fish were holding in the usual places, namely the Rock Slide, Phantom’s Throne at the west corner of the dam and mid-dam, all areas inaccessible from shore.
For an undisclosed reason, Southern California Edison locked the gate at the dam cutting off access to the west shore.
The back inlets were holding fish too, but it’s a bit on the shallow side back there so they get fished out pretty quickly when the catch n’ keep folks are on the water. First one to the inlets usually does best.
Best numbers were definitely on the main body of the lake. Big fish of the week was a 23-inch, 4-lb., 6-oz. Alpers, a personal best for Bob Allen. In addition to his fish, several fish in the 3- to 4-lb. range also came to the scales this week.
The bait n’ wait folks were doing quite well this week on both dough baits and crawlers. Salmon peach PowerBait and anything garlic were the best dough bait colors. Crawlers fished by the dam were very productive for stocker rainbows as well as a solid 3.5-pounder caught by Manda James of Riverside.
The bite on soft plastics continues to roll with mini-jigs and trout worms both producing well. Top plastics this week were the cricket Trout Traps and either the pink/blue Sparkle Sierra Slammer jigs or pink crush trout worms. We had a surprise visit from Marlon Meade and the Berkeley pro-staff this week who not surprisingly killed it on jigs with the biggest fish caught by the group going around 4 lbs. in just a few short hours on the lake.
Tipping mini-jigs with a mealworm six feet under a bobber has been a great tactic when the breeze comes up in the afternoon.
It sounds repetitive but the gold or red/gold Thomas Buoyant just keep catching fish for those who prefer to throw the hardware.
No trolling reports this week but drifting orange trout worms slowly produced well for a few folks.
The water level is slowly dropping but we’re talking inches not feet at present, which is a good thing. Boaters willing to risk the launch from the rocky beach are still giving it a go but it’s pretty sketchy for boats larger than 14 feet and you better have some good trailer skills to make it happen.